THE reopening after more than 60 years of Wiveliscombe Town Hall later this summer has moved a step closer.

About 30 people attended a community meeting to hear town hall trustees set out their plans for the building, in The Square, in the centre of Wiveliscombe.

After a summary of the building’s history and the past work of the trust, the agile approach of the trustees to bringing the Town Hall back into public use was explained.

Spokesman Julian Mellor said: “While past schemes have always planned to restore the building in one go, we have now switched to taking a succession of small steps, with each step making a real improvement.

“The first step has been to make sure the building is safe for public use.

“With this all but completed we hope to be able to reopen the building in the summer.

“But it will be very basic inside, we will have electricity and seats but we will not have water, we will not have heating, and it has not been redecorated since the 1940s.

“So, while we will be welcoming the public through the doors for the first time in 60 years, do not come expecting five star comfort.”

Mr Mellor said those who attended the meeting were asked to think about the type of shows and events they would like to see at a reopened Town Hall.

Ideas ranged from live music, to cinema, theatre, lectures, festivals, hustings, and comedy.

There were also discussions about how to run the Town Hall once it was reopened, including marketing, building maintenance, front-of-house, and fund-raising.

Mr Mellor said everybody was clear that the Town Hall should add to, and complement, existing Wiveliscombe facilities such the community centre, and not compete with them or create duplication.

He said in the next few weeks, once electricity was connected, the lights inside the building would be switched on for the first time in decades.

A volunteer work-day was planned for Saturday, July 22, to give the Town Hall ‘a good scrub’.

From the late summer, the trustees would start a programme of occasional events, increasing their frequency as they learned 'to live with the building and improve the facilities inside’.

The Town Hall was built in 1842 by Alexander Baring Lord Ashburton and originally housed a ‘shambles’, or market, on the ground floor for local traders, and had first floor assembly rooms as a place for meetings and entertainment.

The first floor hall will be accessed using stairs from The Square, leaving the ground floor Co-op, West Country Guns, and Wiveliscombe Library unaffected.

More information about the town hall project can be found on the website https://www.wiveliscombetownhall.org.uk.